


Apotheosis

by orphan_account



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: A whole lot of feelings, Demon!Shane, Established Relationship, Light-Hearted, M/M, summoning a demon and chill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 05:22:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13874046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Slowly but surely, Ryan realises that holy shit, he may or may not be dating a demon. So naturally, his next course of action is to summon the demon in question.





	Apotheosis

"Really? Now?" was the first phrase Ryan had heard when the cloud of black smoke had dissipated in his living room. There, in the centre of the room where his coffee table would usually be had he not pushed it to the side, stood his boyfriend of a year, butt-naked with shampoo still in his hair.

"I knew it! You sneaky little asshole!" Ryan managed in a triumphant tone in between laughs, almost doubled over from how absurd this situation was.

"What can I say," Shane shrugged and raised his soapy wet arms in the air before dropping them back down. "I've never been very good at keeping secrets."

They looked at each other and laughed even more because of course, it was late at night, and Ryan had successfully summoned a demon who happened to be showering at the exact same time.

"Okay," said Ryan after a good minute of silent uncontrollable laughter. "I guess I should probably break the salt circle and the pentagram so you can get dried off and dressed. Or can you make clothes appear? Is that a thing?"

"I'm a demon, not a witch!"

"Right, right." He smiled as he bent down to brush away some of the salt he'd neatly arranged in a circle earlier that evening. It had been quite a sight to behold: salt, a number of candles he was pretty sure was a fire hazard, and a neat, perfect pentagram drawn in ritual chalk he hoped he could brush away later and not have to worry about his landlord keeping his security deposit.

Shane gave him an appreciative nod, shimmying out of the circle with one swift step; he'd chosen his human form wisely this time. Getting everywhere was so much quicker when you were eighty percent leg.

____________________

"So," Ryan spoke as his partner came back from the bathroom in clean pyjamas, towelling his still damp hair, "I was right. Demons are real."

"Bingo, baby." Shane sat down on the couch next to him, and for the first time in centuries, he felt true relief: this was the one person he'd wanted to reveal himself to the most, but also the one he'd been the most afraid of. And yet, it had all worked out.

"I fucking knew it! No one who isn't a demon can remain this chill in haunted locations!" Ryan was beaming, and it was endearing to see; this was like the way he acted when he thought he'd caught some compelling evidence increased tenfold. If there was one thing he loved, it was being right, and this had to be the most satisfying 'I told you so' of his entire life.

"Is that what tipped you off?"

"Oh, no," Ryan scoffed. "It was more like a bunch of little things."

And so, as Shane raised both eyebrows in curiosity, he listened intently to all the ways he'd almost given himself away and eventually had been found out.

____________________

Ryan had been fairly oblivious for a while. They'd known each other for four years and had been dating for one of those; he knew his tall idiotic counterpart inside and out, more intimately than anyone else.

It wasn't until one night when they were sleeping on site for a Supernatural episode, though, that the pieces had finally fallen into place.

The location was a haunted lake house where a fisherman, after his wife had died in an accident, had reportedly gone insane and tried to conjure the devil to make a pact and bring her back. Since the alleged events, people had reported hearing voices and a man's pleads in the dark, inky night. It was all run-of-the-mill stuff for them, really, but the fact the house was so isolated from society and miles away from the first town was undeniably creepy.

Still, after a couple hours of tossing and turning on the decrepit floor, Ryan had managed to fall asleep. He was awoken by a low whisper which sounded awfully like Shane saying something in a hushed tone, and that was when it had all started to make sense.

Before his half-open eyes, unaware that he was watching, Shane stood in the corner of the room. He looked even taller and imposing than usual, and there was this..aura to him, almost like he had a weird shadow floating around him. It was unlike anything Ryan had ever seen before.

Then, as he looked his boyfriend up and down to try and make sure his eyes weren't just playing tricks on him, he noticed it. A dark figure, enveloped with the same shadowy aura that was around Shane, stood facing him.

He had felt like he should be frightened then, but he found that he just wasn't; there was nothing threatening about the shadowy creature despite its darkness. He listened closely, and heard the whispery noise again—he couldn't be sure, but to his mere human ear it had sounded like "good to see you too".

Then, in mere seconds, the shadowy figure took a few steps to the right and vanished into a closet. Shane's own dark aura faded and just before he turned around, Ryan closed his eyes and pretended to still be asleep. He wasn't ready to have this conversation right now, not in the middle of nowhere with another supernatural entity in the room.

Though his eyes were shut, he heard Shane pace around very silently, almost cat-like, and there was a faint, blink-and-you-miss-it snap noise coming from where he knew the camera was. Then he simply returned to his sleeping bag next to him, like he hadn't just been talking with a demon.

Upon examining the footage the week that followed, Ryan didn't find anything of substance; just the both of them tossing and turning all night, occasionally snoring. He was one hundred percent certain of what he had seen, and he was frustrated to have no proof of it on camera, but on the other hand, this also meant Shane didn't know he'd been awake to see it; the footage was simply gone.

____________________

In the days that followed, Ryan had set to write down every time Shane had done something he hadn't thought much about at the time that suddenly made a lot more sense. He generally chalked it up to Shane just being a laid-back sorta weird guy, but now he knew the reason behind those things.

He almost wondered how he could have been so oblivious to some of them, the biggest one being their bosses just giving them a bunch of new funding for their show when they usually waited until the views plateaued on other projects to introduce new things.

It had been a weird meeting; the two of them had sat in a way too formal boardroom and Ryan had explained why they would benefit from spending extra time on location and taking more crew members with them, and their superiors had looked at each other in a way that seemed dubious. To his surprise, though, they had been pulled back into the ridiculous boardroom a couple days later and told they'd secured the funding. Shane had smiled and high-fived Ryan.

He knew demons could influence people to an extent, and protect as well as curse humans, and knowing that Shane could have used his abilities on anyone in the world but had chosen to positively influence his life made him feel insanely lucky. He knew some people would have felt offended to know that their work pitch wasn't really successful because of them, but he didn't care; this had happened before they'd started dating or even shown interest in each other. Shane must have cared for him a lot, he thought.

In retrospect, there had been a few instances like this: once they'd been in the middle of fucking nowhere for Unsolved, trying to get the motel to change their booking from two single rooms to just a double room, and the lady at the desk just wouldn't hear it until Shane repeated exactly what Ryan had just said while looking her straight in the eye, and she'd just nodded and handed them the key. Another time had been when Shane was ordering takeout for them over the phone after a long crappy day of travelling; the food had come in under ten minutes instead of the usual thirty, and the restaurant had mysteriously messed up their order and given them twice the amount of food they'd ordered for no extra cost.

Then as he jogged his memory for more instances, he thought of something he'd always found odd but never asked about, and the thought alone made him blush. Shane lasted an incredibly long time in bed. It wasn't at all a big deal or a strain on their sex life; they actually took advantage of it quite often, including Ryan's favourite game of trying to make him come as fast as possible and setting new records for himself. Now he knew he was dating a supernatural being, he understood why he lasted about twice as long as every guy he'd been with before, and a smile tugged at his mouth when he also realised that Shane being incredibly good in bed was probably due to being alive for a really long time.

Thinking of this had come to him in the middle of the night when he was unable to find sleep, while Shane slept soundly next to him, staying over because it was the weekend, and he'd thought about how he was gonna go about telling him he knew. He wasn't afraid —he knew Shane would never hurt him despite how much they teased each other— but he was nervous.

He didn't want to screw this up, and there was still something gnawing at him in the back of his head, telling him that he'd imagined the whole thing or it had been a nightmare, and all the other 'evidence' he had of his other half being a demon was circumstantial.

By the time the digital clock on his nightstand read four o'clock in the morning, he had devised a plan: if Shane really was a demon, then he'd summon him. The worst thing that could happen would be nothing.

____________________

 

And so, with their season of ghost hunting wrapped and work slowing down if only for a moment, Ryan set to put his plan in motion: a night hunched over his laptop perusing Pagan Witchcraft websites had given him an albeit small but clearer understanding of the ritual. He gathered the salt, the ingredients for the ritual chalk, and practiced drawing a pentagram over and over on his living room floor. 

Even though he knew it wouldn’t hurt him if he just drew it without completing the ritual, and the demon he was summoning was more than friendly, he still felt an uneasiness in his bones on the days that led up to his attempt. It had all gone to plan on the Friday night he planned for his attempt; Shane had gone home after he’d told him he was gonna catch up on work, drawing on his floor had been easy enough, and the incense he was burning in his apartment made his surroundings smell nice.   
  
Before he said the words, though, anxiety had shot through him— what if this all went horribly wrong and come Monday, his coworkers learned of his demise? No matter how on brand “death by summoning a demon” sounded, he wasn’t particularly a fan of dying in his mid-twenties. 

But despite the fear, he felt certain of one thing: he had to know or this would eat away at him forever. And if his voice shook when he read off his notes and said “I conjure and abjure thee”, well, that was nobody’s business.

____________________

 

“I’d say I’m sorry you saw that, but I’m mostly surprised you didn’t piss yourself when you saw a demon,” Shane smiled, one corner of his mouth going up in a crooked grin as he spoke, and Ryan noticed his three-day stubble was still shining with water droplets in places, reflected in the candlelight. For a demon, he looked pretty damn close to holy.

  
“Turns out I have survival instincts, contrarily to you,” He shoved his partner playfully, his fingers meeting the now familiar bony shoulder he’d buried his head into so many times.  
  
“Yeah, well, it’s easy when ghosts are mostly bullshit and you’ll only do one demon per season, little guy.”  
  
Ryan’s grin faded from his face, his eyes widening in disappointment. “Ghosts are bullshit? For the love of- Please say you’re messing with me.”  
  
“Nope. I mean, they _are_ real; they’re just energy for the most part. Humans can’t see ‘em, and to me, they just look like a slightly darker wind that whispers in my ear.” He knew this wasn’t what Ryan wanted to hear; that spirits weren’t fully formed apparitions humans could see, and that he’d never spot one even if Shane showed him.   
  
“So you weren’t lying when you said it was just the wind.” His expression was slightly less disappointed and sad and more of a sad smile now, and that was understandable: he’d just been told his quest to catch a ghost on camera couldn’t be achieved.   
  
“It’s not a lie if it’s a partial version of the truth, baby.” Shane scooted closer to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder; Ryan melted into his embrace and let himself fall backwards until his head was resting in Shane’s lap. They weren’t looking at each other, Ryan’s eyes on the pentagram still on the floor and Shane’s on the top of his head where jet black hair flourished, but it was still a nice moment nonetheless. They were good at being in each other’s space and implicitly being tender with one another; it was the little things rather than grand gestures.  
  
Neither of them spoke for a while. Shane stroked Ryan’s hair with his right hand, and despite the fact it was short it still felt soft; the fact he knew he was the only one allowed to mess up Ryan’s usually neatly styled hair never got old. Ryan tried to process the information he’d found out both tonight and in the past few weeks, and so, to try and help with that, he broke the comfortable silence first.  
  
“Have I only ever known the demon version of you?” He still wasn’t looking at Shane, and the fact his voice didn’t waver was entirely due to that.  
  
“There’s-” Shane stopped himself for a second, almost like he was pondering what he could or couldn’t tell him, but he figured if Ryan hadn’t screamed and ran when he’d first found him out, he wouldn’t now. “there’s never been any other version of this form. This is just what I look like toned down for Earth.”  
  
“So you’re not possessing anybody?”  
  
“Nope,” The p popped out from Shane’s mouth as he stopped stroking Ryan’s hair. “This is my body, all long limbs and all.”  
  
Ryan turned to face him, and he propped himself up a little to look up at him; from this angle, he could see Shane’s jawline, the skin where his neck met his ear, and his scratchy chin. He was glad this was all him and not some poor vessel he was using; glad that he didn’t have to lie awake at night and wonder if the real, unpossessed Shane would wake up one day and not be into him.   
  
He felt taken over by the feeling of gratitude he’d felt a couple weeks ago when he’d realised how much Shane had used his abilities to make his life better; this time it hit him how minuscule the chances of them meeting were, and yet, they’d found each other. He wasn’t sure how long, but he knew Shane must have been alive in this form for a long time; to know that he’d chosen him when he could have had anyone, gone anywhere and done anything he wanted was almost overwhelming. 

It would have scared him if it wasn’t for the look in Shane’s eyes when he hoisted himself back up to be level with him. It was something stronger than just a tender loving look, something akin to reverence and devotion, and he felt his gaze wash over him and make him warm for only a few seconds before he pressed his lips against Shane’s. 

They’d shared countless kisses, made out for hours and hours put back to back, but this was different than any affection they’d ever given each other; it felt important, and when hands started to roam free on both of their bodies, there was want but no urgency. Instead, Ryan felt a deep need to be closer to him, to freeze this moment and revel in it for an eternity.   
  
“I have one more question,” Ryan said, breathless, eyes darker from lust, “can we move to the bedroom?” 

Shane gave him a kiss for an answer, only breaking contact to get up and hook Ryan’s legs around his waist to carry him; he’d done this a couple times before in the past, and yeah, this was definitely another one of those things he could file under “what should have tipped me off to my boyfriend being a demon”. 

____________________

They made love that night, and it was unlike any experience Ryan had ever had with anyone in his entire life. He truly understood what being one with somebody else meant in his bedroom, with the lights dimmed and Shane washed in yellow light as he thrust into Ryan slowly and deeply, his hands big on his hips. When he looked into his eyes as low moans spilled out from his lips, Ryan caught the reverent and adoring look there again. It felt like the apotheosis of everything they’d experienced together through the years, like they were meant for this moment and nothing else, and that was just fine by him. 

He couldn’t speak for a long time after they were done, listening in to Shane getting a towel from the bathroom next door, and feeling the cold, wet sensation of him wiping his chest and stomach clean didn’t quite manage to bring him back to solid ground; this felt like another plane he was floating in. Ryan wasn’t sure if this was what Love with a capital L was supposed to be like, but he hoped it was when he finally opened his eyes to see Shane resting on his back, his head turned to smile at him. 

“Ryan,” he said softly, voice so low it could have been mistaken for a whisper. “I— I’m happy that you know now.”   
  
Ryan turned on his side so he could face him, and Shane did the same. They were inches apart again, and Ryan could see every detail, every tiny freckle on his face. “You know how it is,” he started with a smile pulling at his mouth, “I just wanted to make sure I would be able to cross out ‘fucked a demon’ off my bucket list.”

Shane rolled his eyes. “I’m glad I’m useful for something, you dick.”   
He smiled fondly. Exchanges like this were one of his favourite things about loving Ryan; he loved how they could go from being heartfelt and serious to teasing each other without missing a beat.   
  
“Yeah, that, and now I’m going to have you convince restaurants to give me free food all the time. Get ready.” 

Shane laughed a hearty laugh. As he stroked Ryan’s cheek with his left hand, he felt that he didn’t mind; if the rest of this life was spent using his abilities to make him smile, that was perfectly fine by him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read my work! <3 I hope I did demon Shane justice, lol.


End file.
